In conventional space vehicles, circuit boards and components are custom developed by different providers for various applications pertinent to a given space vehicle mission. These boards and components are typically connected to one another using wiring harnesses, or the boards may be stacked on top of each other with interconnects therebetween. This custom development and lack of coherent integration increases cost and complexity.
Traditional backplanes, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect express (PCIe), are often used in conventional space vehicles to connect circuit boards together in a common hardware framework. Traditional backplane designs are feature-rich, designed to apply to a wide variety of problems, and as such, are fairly large and complex. For example, PCIe uses a total of 164 pins per connector, providing power, serial links, and a common reference clock to enable multiple boards to communicate with a common host. The large size makes traditional backplane designs difficult to use in micro-satellites and nano-satellites, such as cubesats, and the additional complexity greatly increases development time and adds features not necessary for the simpler needs of small space vehicles. Accordingly, an improved way to connect circuitry and components in space vehicles may be beneficial.